1. The Vision
1.1 4D Studio Limited and the owner of the estate (also the owner of Mayflower House) are committed to best practice in relation to current and emerging urban design and residential development. We see the proposal to create additional dwellings in a rooftop extension as representing an important opportunity to improve the particular building, the wider estate and the neighbourhood.
2. Detailed Design Standards
2.1 The residential accommodation will meet the spatial and layout standards in the new Nationally Described Space Standards (NDSS), the Cambridge Local Plan and current Building Regulations.
3. Sustainable Strategies for Energy,
3.1 The sustainability strategy is integral to the de-sign process. Although the Code for Sustainable Homes (CfSH) has been discontinued, the scheme has been designed to Code Level 4
4. Materials and Durability
4.1 The building should not just look high quality on paper and at the point it is completed – it must go on looking architecturally accomplished for many decades – and be a credit to the neighbourhood as well as the city continues to evolve.
5. Growth responding to the housing commitment and evolving character of the city, including its new status as a world-class centre for high technology and bio-technology.
5.1 The Midsummer Meadows estate has been in the same ownerships (Mayflower Manhattan Limited owns the freeholds of Broadmeadows, Midsummer Court and Woodvale Lodge but not Mayflower House) for nearly 40 years. It is an estate of apartment buildings close to the city centre. Due to the poor sub-site conditions (necessitating deep piled foundations), it was recognised from the outset that the buildings would likely be relatively high rise, witness the original name given to the road by the City Council.
5.2 Midsummer Meadows has made a pioneering contribution towards the provision of small and starter homes in the city, including a significant provision (79 units) of affordable housing. Since completion in 1969 of the first building, Mayflower House (117 units), the accommodation (currently 269 units) has grown, by one building or extension at a time, facilitating well thought-out responses to changing conditions and evolving housing need.
5.3 Our involvement as architects goes back to 1971 as Stefan Zins Associates (since rebranded 4D Studio Ltd). We were the original architects for the last 4 of the 5 buildings at Midsummer Meadows – Bridgacre, Midsummer Court and Woodvale Lodge as well as Broad-meadows. It is now professionally rewarding to be commissioned as architects for Mayflower House that was originally designed by George Vickers RIBA